IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 26(3):226–229 • JAN 2020

First Record of Dicephalism in the Common Krait, Bungarus caeruleus

(Schneider 1801), from NepalKamal Devkota1,2, Amod Ghimire1, Chhabilal Thapamagar1,3, Van Wallach4, and David Wojnowski2,5

1Nepal Toxinology Association, Kawasoti, Nawalpur, Nepal (devkotakamal67@gmail.com)2Save The Snakes, 2929 35th St #5402, Sacramento, California 95817, USA

3Kaligandaki Health Foundation, Kawasoti, Nawalpur, Nepal44 Potter Park, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

5Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education, College of Education & Human Development, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, USA

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IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • VOL15, NO 4 • DEC 2008 189TABLE OF CONTENTS

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

F E A T U R E A R T I C L E S

Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190

The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: A Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................Robert W. Henderson 198

R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E S

The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida

.............................................Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212

C O N S E R V A T I O N A L E R T

World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 More Than Mammals ...................................................................................................................................................................... 223 The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225

H U S B A N D R Y

Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226

P R O F I L E

Kraig Adler: A Lifetime Promoting Herpetology ................................................................................................ Michael L. Treglia 234

C O M M E N T A R Y

The Turtles Have Been Watching Me ........................................................................................................................ Eric Gangloff 238

B O O K R E V I E W

Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young .............................................................................................................. Robert Powell 243

CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ................................. 245 NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 NEWBRIEFS ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 248 EDITORIAL INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 251 FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ............................................................................................... 252

Front Cover. Shannon Plummer.Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos accullabo.

Back Cover. Michael KernTotat et velleseque audant mo

estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus

aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque

moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia-tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as

IRC

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The presence of axial bifurcation in snakes consists mainly of dicephalic specimens and is well documented in the

literature: Cunningham (1937), Jha and Gupta (1957), Mishra and Shah (1983), Smith and Perez-Higareda (1987), Hoser and Harris (1995), Swanson et al. (1997), McAllister and Wallach (2006), Wallach (1995, 2007, 2012, 2018), Beane (2009), Jandzik (2009), Albuquerque et al. (2010, 2013), Kim et al. (2013), Pezdirc et al. (2013), Wallach and Salmon (2013), Dieckmann et al. (2014), Gvozdenovic and Cavor (2015), Twombley (2015), and Caviglioli et al. (2016). Cunningham (1937) carried out the first comprehensive sur-vey on axial bifurcation in serpents, which was a historical sur-vey of 225 snakes exhibiting mainly two-headed conditions. Subsequently, the number of verified cases of axial bifurcation in snakes has risen to 1,987 and includes 112 genera, 217 spe-cies, and 255 species and subspecies (Wallach, unpubl. data). Of 181 reports of two-headed snakes from Asia, one is from Nepal (Mishra and Shah 1983; Wallach 2018, unpubl. data). Only 10 cases of dicephalism are presently known in the family Elapidae (6 species in 4 genera): Bungarus caeruleus,

Hemachatus haemachatus, Naja atra, N. kaouthia, N. naja, and Sinomicrurus japonicus (Wallach 2018). Dicephalism is not a common phenomenon and rarely occurs in nature. Most reports involve snakes. The majority of dicephalic individuals are unable to survive with normal behavior in the wild (i.e., feeding and escaping predation) due to having two independent brains. Specific methods for locating dicephalic snakes in-situ have not been established; therefore, most, if not all, two-headed snakes have been found opportunistically. Herein, we report a noteworthy case of dicephalism in a Bungarus caeruleus (Schneider 1801) collected from the Kawasoti Municipality in Nepal along with detailed information on its external morphology and coloration. The specimen was preserved one year ago in 70% etha-nol. The total length (TL), snout-vent length (SVL) and cloaca to tail-tip length (CTL) were taken with a small rope and later converted into millimeters. Length of the head was measured from tip of the snout to the fusion zone. Scales were counted following previously described methods (Dowling 1951). Anomalous half-ventrals were not counted and partly

Fig. 1. Dorsal view of a dicephalic Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus) from Kawasoti, Nepal. Photograph provided by the Kaligandaki Hospital.

IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 1098-6324

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divided ventrals were counted as one scale. Paired organs were recorded as right and left. Sex of the specimen was determined by making a post-cloacal incision between the subcaudals. We dissected the preserved specimen to examine its internal anatomy but were unable to collect any pertinent data. Radiographs of the preserved dicephalic specimen were taken in the Kaligandaki Hospital with the help of the medi-cal team. This unusual snake was found in May 2018 on the premises of Juddha Bir Shirish Magar’s home in Kawasoti Municipality, Nawalpur District, Gandaki Province, Nepal (27°39’01.6”N, 84°06’47.5”E; elev. 196 m). According to local observers, the snake was first seen alive crawling in the house. It was collected and preserved and now is deposited in the Kaligandaki Hospital, Nawalpur, Nepal (cat. no. KGH BC 001). The Digital Voucher Image is deposited in the Lee Kong Chain Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore (cat. no. ZRC(IMG) 2.407a,b). The specimen is a neonatal female with the following combination of characters (Figs. 1–2): TL = 208 mm (from left head) and 200 mm (from right head); SVL = 175 mm (from left head) and 167 mm (from right head); CTL = 33 mm; dorsal scale row formula 15:15:15; ventrals 207 (left head: 39 + 168) and 189 (right head: 21 + 168); cloacal scale undivided; subcaudals 52; preocular 1; postoculars 2; loreal absent; temporals 1 + 2; supralabials 7 (3rd and 4th touching eye, 6th largest); and infralabials 7. Right head and left head length from snout to fusion zone are 21 mm and 29 mm long (12% and 16% of SVL, respectively). Scales are smooth, heads are slightly broader than necks, and eyes are small with round pupils (Fig. 2). Scales of the vertebral line are hexago-nal and larger than adjacent scales. The radiographs of the dicephalic specimen (Fig. 3) revealed approximately 24 verte-brae in the right neck, 36 in the left neck, three in the fusion zone, 162 in the trunk, and 35 in the tail. The original color pattern is slightly faded and different than the color pattern of live snakes due to the duration of preservation. The dor-sum is black with narrow paired white transverse bands that continue to the tip of the tail. These bands are absent in the

head regions and are replaced by white vertebral spots (Fig. 1). Both the labials and ventrals are glossy white. The tongue is pinkish-red. Although only 9% of snakebite envenomed cases were recorded in the Western Development Region of Nepal (Magar et al. 2013), most of the people dislike, fear, and/or want to kill any snakes they encounter (Pandey et al. 2016). This snake’s demise could be attributed to insufficient knowledge and lack of awareness by the local people regarding conservation; sadly, therefore, we were unable to study its behavior. The study of dicephalic snakes is always a curiosity in the ophiological world. Two-headed snakes rarely survive long in the wild but can survive for many years in captivity, with two Pituophis catenifer living at least 21–22 years (Wallach 2007). The first record of dicephalism in Nepal was a 185-mm juvenile Checkered Keelback, Fowlea piscator reported by Mishra and Shah (1983) and deposited in the Natural History Museum of Nepal (Fig. 4). Jha and Gupta (1957) recorded the first dicephalic specimen of Bungarus caeruleus, a 260-mm juvenile, from Lakhaoti, Uttar Pradesh, India (Fig. 5).

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 26(3):226–229 • JAN 2020DEVKOTA ET AL.

Fig. 2. Closeup view of the heads of a dicephalic Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus) from Kawasoti, Nepal. Photograph by Kamal Devkota.

Fig. 3. Radiograph of a lateral view of a dicephalic Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus) from Kawasoti, Nepal. Radiograph provided by the Kaligandaki Hospital.

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Our specimen is a new addition to the list of two-headed snakes and represents only the second record worldwide for B. caeruleus and first record from Nepal. It differs slightly from the one recorded by Jha and Gupta (1957) in regard to the degree of bifurcation. According to the classification of Smith and Perez-Higareda (1987), our specimen is clearly proar-

chodichotomous, whereas the specimen described by Jha and Gupta (1957) was craniodichotomous. Jha and Gupta (1957) were unable to investigate detailed information due to the fragile condition of their specimen.

AcknowledgementsWe thank Mr. Juddha Bir Shirish Magar from Kawasoti, Nawalpur, for providing the information about the specimen without which this study would not have been possible. We thank The Rufford Foundation (UK) for funding our field-work (Project number: 19206-1 and 23145-2 to the first author) while working for the “Save Snakes Save Nature” proj-ect in Nepal during which this specimen was found. We thank the Natural History Museum of Nepal for providing the lit-erature regarding the only other previously recorded dicephalic snake from Nepal and allowing us to take photographs of the specimen. We also thank Michael G. Starkey, co-founder and executive director of “Save The Snakes,” for support dur-ing this study. We are thankful to the Kaligandaki Hospital, Nawalpur, for granting us permission to carry out this study.

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Fig. 5. First record of dicephalism in a Common Krait (Bungarus caeru-leus), an Indian specimen documented by Jha and Gupta (1957).

Fig. 4. First record of dicephalism in Nepal was a Checkered Keelback (Fowlea piscator) recorded by Mishra and Shah (1983) and a recent photograph of the specimen in the Natural History Museum of Nepal. Photograph by Kamal Devkota.

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